{
  "id": 9667143,
  "title": "AI answers are easy to get but expensive to read — a CLI that filters them down",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/25/ai-answers-are-easy-to-get-but-expensive-to-read-a-cli-that-filters",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-25T01:02:52.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Dev.to",
    "slug": "dev-to",
    "url": "https://dev.to/sunnydachs/ai-answers-are-easy-to-get-but-expensive-to-read-a-cli-that-filters-them-down-224k"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "An AI assistant provides an answer to a question, but the process of reading the lengthy response can be costly. The author found it frustrating to ask for a simple solution, like removing duplicates from a CSV in Python, and receive hundreds of characters detailing BOMs, encodings, and pandas design philosophy. The author then created a command-line interface (CLI) to filter the AI's response, making it more manageable. The CLI takes a Markdown-formatted answer and produces three sections: a conclusion, minimal code, and verification instructions. It processes the input via stdin, allowing users to pipe the answer directly into it. The tool is available at https://github.com/sunnydachs/concise-md. The implementation is straightforward Markdown parsing, splitting the input into sections, detaching code fences from prose, and reorganizing the text. The conclusion is determined automatically, based on specific markers like \"tl;dr\" or \"the standard approach.\" Code blocks are preserved exactly as they appear in the original answer. For verification, the CLI looks for headings like \"Verification\" or \"How to verify,\" or sentences containing the words \"verify\" or \"check.\" If the answer is short and contains only one code block, the CLI passes the input through unchanged. The tool is tested on twelve different commits across Python versions 3.11-3.13. The author acknowledges the limitations of the Markdown parser, which is based on regexes rather than a full CommonMark implementation, potentially causing odd results when parsing tables-heavy answers. Additionally, the tool cannot determine the correctness of the content, so any wrong answer will be shortened, but still incorrect.",
  "summary": "You ask an AI assistant a question and an answer comes back. Reading it is the expensive part. I find the long round-trips tiring. Ask it how to remove duplicates from a CSV in Python and you get 800 characters covering BOMs, encodings, and pandas design philosophy. What you actually need is twelve lines of code and one way to check it works. Telling the assistant \"be concise\" ahead of time…",
  "key_points": [
    "AI provides lengthy answers, costly to read",
    "CLI filters responses into conclusion, code, verification",
    "Tool available at GitHub, tested on multiple Python versions"
  ],
  "editors_take": "This development streamlines interactions with AI assistants by filtering lengthy responses into more digestible sections, making it easier for users to quickly grasp solutions without wading through extraneous information.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}